A Bluestocking Knits

Chocolate

I'm pretty easy-going when it comes to chocolate.  I do like the milk and not-too-dark varieties best, but other than that I think they're all pretty good.  Like books or friends or wines, in different situations depending on one's mood or whatnot, they each have their strengths.

I discovered Green & Black's this past summer, in the exotic otherness of ParkNShop, and while I haven't yet tried many of G&B's varieties (with orange and spices, Blackbird?!), their creamy vanilla white is high on my list of favorites.  Hershey's is what I grew up on as to bar chocolate, so I cook with it and find that it makes an excellent cup of hot chocolate -- comfort food, indeed!

This chocolate moment comes via Show and Tell --

Window

Sarah Louise, via Blackbird, wishes to see windows for "Show and Tell" this week -- here is one of mine.  Our little house is in dire need of a coat of paint, and things look rather shabby, I'm afraid, so I won't show the outsides just yet.  This is part of the window in our living room, a fairly typical bungalow arrangement of two tall double-hung windows flanking a rather large picture window.  Apparently this is the original 1929 varnish, and I'm quite impressed that nobody has ever painted it over.  When Laura was a baby, there was a new apartment building going up directly across the street, and she used to sit there in front of the open window, for hours it seemed, and watch the comings and goings of the construction crews.  It seems to have been a favorite spot for babies over the years, as hers were not the first teeth marks on that ledge!

Butterdish

I'm not entirely sure why the delightful Blackbird wishes us to show-and-tell our butterdish, but here it is --

Bought so many years ago that I've long forgotten its origins -- plain, serviceable, of a size to hold the longer sticks of butter that seemed so elegant to me, having grown up with the short, fat ones.

Eyes

Blackbird wishes to see our eyes for Show and Tell this week.

But optics sharp it needs, I ween,
  To see what is not to be seen.
      -- John Trumbull (American, 1750-1831), McFingal, canto I, l. 67

Calendar Girls

Badger via Blackbird wants to see our calendars this week.

A simple affair, an At-a-Glance wall calendar from Staples.  It has a goodish amount of space per day to write the girls' schedules (we add sticky stars for birthdays), doctor's appointments, library book due dates, etc. etc., and a large space at the top to write miscellaneous Things to Do.  I also use that space to write down the funny things the girls say -- the latest reads, "2/24 J (appreciatively): "You smell like tea, Mommy."  There is also next to it the calendar from Julia's pre-school, since it is a parent-participation school and we have at least one "leader day" a month when mommy helps the teacher.

Note to self: Time to clear some of the stuff off of the refrigerator.  Write it on the calendar!

Breakfast

For Show and Tell this week, Blackbird says that Jess would like to see a meal --

Breakfast is usually very simple chez Bluestocking, as ever since the advent of children, the grown-ups -- so far the only ones who actually prepare breakfast -- are usually a bit slow-moving.  We still each get up when we wake up, so it's also not a "family meal" as such, and we rarely have cooked breakfasts.  Still, I do enjoy a simple breakfast -- this morning, Laura and I had Shredded Wheat with a little bit of brown sugar, tea for me and milk for Laura, and we read the newspaper -- Laura was delighted to see the figure skaters on the front page of the Olympics section.

This certainly promises to be an exciting evening on the ice in Torino --

Ready for Its Close-Up

Blackbird requests something close up for Show and Tell this week.

I am collecting Rowan wools for the Kaffe Fassett knitalong over at Blithe Dance -- a slow and tentative process as I'm on a budget and it takes a lot of colors for that Toothed Stripe Waistcoat I've got my eye on.  I did discover that Yorkshire Tweed 4-Ply doubled knits up to the same gauge as Yorkshire Tweed DK, so I've got more of a selection to choose from now.  This latest one is "Gust"....

Lamps

Show and Tell Friday is moving to Thursdays -- today, it's our favorite lamp.

This one (please ignore the crummy paint job left by painters who didn't bother to remove light fixtures before they painted) came from my grandparents' house,

so I can date it to 1947.  I remember many happy sleepovers, lying on the floor in Grandma's room and looking up at this lamp before I fell asleep.  When my mother had to sell the house, I asked for this.  One of the first things we did when we moved to our own house, which had been stripped of all the 1929 doorknobs and light fixtures by a previous tenant in a fit of pique, was install this lamp in the bedroom.  It has a certain elegance to it, like a wedding cake with its ring of "piped" dots around the rim and swags of glass and pendants, but it isn't fussy.  I love the simple grace of it, and it makes me happy to see it in my own house.

These are as yet only lamps to be --

but they are very pretty.  We bought them at Wah Tung in Admiralty, just before we came home from Hong Kong.  Haven't had a chance to get the fixtures to convert them from the candlesticks they started out as, but I'm looking forward to the finished lamps!  I love the color of the ripe peaches and the dark branches against the taupe background, and the little golden-orange bats (the Chinese words for "bat" and "happiness" are both pronounced "fu"), and the way that they are apparently similar but actually just a little bit different from each other.

Allerhanded

For Blackbird's Show and Tell today, Sarah Louise asks to see our purses or bags.

I am completely indifferent about the Target purse I use at present, which was quite a step down from the Gucci bag that I used BK -- Before Kids.  I need something with enough room to carry the tissues, calendar, and assorted paraphernalia of children without overloading myself, but also something that is small enough to slip inside a larger backpack, and I am still looking for just the right one.

Here instead is the Allerhand Ergo Backpack, far too cool to call a "diaper bag," and so we use its proper name.  I bought this at an outlet mall in Ap Lei Chau last spring, when our old and well-used diaper bag proved not big enough for our day trips around Hong Kong.  Note the mobile phone pocket, which I did use after David dragged me protesting mightily into the 20th century, and the little one beneath is still, I think, full of Hong Kong coins and a taxi receipt.

Zippered pouches at the sides are waterproofed to hold baby bottles, if one desires -- ours usually stashes the digital camera and spare batteries on one side, and tissues and handwipes or a bottle of water on the other.  The main pocket holds spare clothes and whatnot, and a large pocket across the bottom carried our street atlas and the Lonely Planet Hong Kong (Condensed) that served us so well for many months.  (Another slim pocket at the back holds a changing mat, still useful in certain circumstances.)

Here is a photo from last April, of the Allerhand in action, this time at Chater Gardens --

Very comfy, very dashing.

A Bluestocking's ThinkPad

Blackbird requests our computer for "Show and Tell Friday" this week.

I am something of a computer ignoramus, so I leave the hardware decisions to Bluestocking Tech Support (i.e., David).  For our relocation to Hong Kong last year, he bought this reconditioned IBM ThinkPad, mostly because he knew that we were going to have a very small flat to live in, and a laptop certainly doesn't take up much room!  He also rationalized that I would be able to take the laptop on genealogy research trips once we came home, although that hasn't materialized yet, since after a virus scare we're not using the big desk computer atal.

I miss my ergonomic keyboard, but the laptop is nice, I must say.  It amazes me that it is more powerful than the big desk one.  (Someone commented to Blackbird that she looked forward to using a laptop on the couch or in bed, but I must warn you that this thing is hot, and I don't mean style-wise this time.  I always had to put a throw pillow underneath it, to keep the heat from the fan from scorching my legs!)